A REPAIR<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nA recurring theme in the sources on milah is the idea that it is a repair. When the Roman ruler asked Rebbe Akiva why the Jews perform circumcision, which he viewed as marring the body, Rebbe Akiva pointed out that on the contrary everything we enjoy in the world is improved by human intervention. From wheat grains we make fancy pastries, from stalks of flax we make beautiful garments, and so on. (Tanchuma Vayikra 12:3.)<\/p>\n
We can find a source for this idea in the Torah. When Hashem makes the covenant of the milah with Avram, He uses the name \u201cShad-ai\u201d. (Bereshit 17:1.) Chazal connect this name to the word \u201cdai\u201d, meaning \u201cenough\u201d, saying that this name reminds us that HaShem created the world with limitation. \u201cI am the one who said to the world, Enough!\u201d (Chagiga 12a.) G_d is saying to Avram, I am the G_d who created the world with limitation and imperfection; you go before Me, perfect the world and make it a fit place for My holiness. In this way you will make yourself whole.<\/p>\n
In the Aleinu prayer we pray that we will be able to \u201crepair the world in the kingdom of Sha-dai\u201d; again, this name of HaShem is associated with our role in repairing the world.<\/p>\n
HaShem didn\u2019t give us a perfect world but rather a perfectible one. Human activity is essential to improving and repairing the world. Even the human body is not perfect, for men are born with a superfluous part, the foreskin. The brit milah, performed on the infant on the eighth day when he is only a week old, reminds us that if we want to repair the world we must start by repairing ourselves.<\/p>\n
MILAH AND TUMAH<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nOur parsha deals primarily with the skin affliction tzara\u2019at \u2013 often translated as \u201cleprosy\u201d though it is unrelated to the disease we call leprosy today. Why then is circumcision mentioned? Our Sages learned that the verse teaches us that we may perform a milah even if the foreskin is leprous \u2013 even though cutting off tzara\u2019at is usually forbidden. (Shabbat 132b.) Let us examine the inner meaning of this law.<\/p>\n
Chazal taught that tzara\u2019at is a kind of spiritual affliction which is a punishment for lashon hara \u2013 malicious gossip. This is learned from Moshe, whose hand whitened when his words suggested that the Jewish people were of weak faith (Shemot 4:1-8 and Rashi), and from Miriam who was stricken when she questioned the uniqueness of Moshe\u2019s level of prophecy. (Bamidbar 12:1-10).<\/p>\n
Immediately following the prohibition to cut away leprous skin is an admonition to remember what happened to Miriam, which Rashi explains is a warning to refrain from malicious gossip. (Devarim 24:8-9.) The message seems to be that if a person is \u201cinfected\u201d with this sin, it is of no use to remove the symptoms without treating the underlying disease by improving our moral character.<\/p>\n
The main kind of lashon hara punished with tzara\u2019at is denigration of the Jewish people as a whole, such as questioning their faith or the level of prophecy which leads them. And even the severity of ordinary gossip is related to the fact that all Jews who adhere to HaShem\u2019s covenant should be considered basically righteous. So saying lashon hara can be seen as a kind of separation from the Jewish people, symbolized by the isolation imposed on the metzora. Removing the affected skin can represent a desire to conceal this separation without dealing with it.<\/p>\n
But the milah is the ultimate symbol of connection to the Jewish people. A man who cuts off a leprous orla is not denying his separation from the nation but rather repairing it by affirming his adherence to the covenant. So this particular excision is not included in the prohibition.<\/p>\n
When Eliyahu\u2019s words seemed to question the Jews\u2019 commitment to the covenant, Hashem did not punish him with tzara\u2019at, but did order him to witness each and every brit milah so that he could testify that we do indeed adhere to the brit. (Zohar Lech Lecha, I: 93a; Vayigash, I 209b.) This confirms the idea that while tzara\u2019at is a punishment for the sin careless speech, the milah is a rectification of this sin.<\/p>\n
\nRabbi Asher Meir is the author of the book Meaning in Mitzvot, distributed by Feldheim. The book provides insights into the inner meaning of our daily practices, following the order of the 221 chapters of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our parsha begins with the laws of the tumah of a woman who gives birth to a boy. By the way, it mentions that the boy should be circumcised on the eighth day (Vayikra 13:3), in accordance with the covenant made with Avraham in Bereshit (17:12). The Tur writes: \u201cThis mitzva is greater than other<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":41128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torah","series-meaning-in-mitzvot"],"yoast_head":"\n
Tazria-Metzora: Brit Milah - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recurring theme in the sources on milah is the idea that it is a repair. God told Avraham that through the mitzvah of milah, he would become complete\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tazria-Metzora: Brit Milah - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recurring theme in the sources on milah is the idea that it is a repair. God told Avraham that through the mitzvah of milah, he would become complete\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-04-19T23:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-10-26T11:14:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Chair_of_Elijah.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Asher Meir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Asher Meir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/\",\"name\":\"Tazria-Metzora: Brit Milah - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Chair_of_Elijah.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-04-19T23:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-26T11:14:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/4c2f4ad1d72111dec1fdf83f0a909af9\"},\"description\":\"A recurring theme in the sources on milah is the idea that it is a repair. God told Avraham that through the mitzvah of milah, he would become complete\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Chair_of_Elijah.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Chair_of_Elijah.jpg\",\"width\":366,\"height\":336,\"caption\":\"Chair of Eliyahu for bris\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/4c2f4ad1d72111dec1fdf83f0a909af9\",\"name\":\"Asher Meir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0510faaa140f017ea10abbcd307dd7f96ad61b6976b05c887145d87bd1d3a4cd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0510faaa140f017ea10abbcd307dd7f96ad61b6976b05c887145d87bd1d3a4cd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Asher Meir\"},\"description\":\"Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir is one of the Jewish world's best-known lecturers and educators in the area of business ethics. Rabbi Dr. Meir is known by a wide audience from his \\\"Ethics@Work\\\" column in the Jerusalem Post, through the popular syndicated column \\\"The Jewish Ethicist,\\\" and through his lectures and books. His extensive background includes a Harvard education and obtaining a Ph.D. in economics from MIT. He has worked on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan Administration. His rabbinic ordination is from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. Rabbi Dr Meir's works combine a professional grasp of the detailed workings of the 21st century economy with a highly-developed sensitivity to the eternal ethical messages of Jewish law and tradition. For a number of years he served as a Senior Lecturer in economics and business ethics at the Jerusalem College of Technology. Rabbi Meir's first book, \\\"The Jewish Ethicist,\\\" was released in February 2005 and rapidly obtained remarkable reviewer approval. The American Library Association's Booklist applauded it as \\\"an important source of ethical insights for Jews and non-Jews alike,\\\" while the Jewish Press noted that the author \\\"combines up-to-the-minute knowledge of his field with thousands of years of Jewish tradition.\\\" Rabbi Meir's second book, \\\"Meaning in Mitzvot,\\\" distributed by Feldheim, provides insights into the deeper spiritual and ethical meanings of the daily practices of Jewish law, has been warmly received by readers. Dr. Meir is a regular member of the Ethics Committee of the Prime Minister's office and of the Israel Economic Association. He has spoken as an invited expert before the Knesset Law Committee. He is a frequent speaker at professional gatherings on business and economic ethics, as well as a lecturer for popular audiences.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/rabbi_asher_meirou-org\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tazria-Metzora: Brit Milah - OU Life","description":"A recurring theme in the sources on milah is the idea that it is a repair. God told Avraham that through the mitzvah of milah, he would become complete","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tazria-Metzora: Brit Milah - OU Life","og_description":"A recurring theme in the sources on milah is the idea that it is a repair. God told Avraham that through the mitzvah of milah, he would become complete","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/","og_site_name":"OU Life","article_published_time":"2007-04-19T23:31:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-10-26T11:14:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":366,"height":336,"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Chair_of_Elijah.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Asher Meir","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Asher Meir","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/","name":"Tazria-Metzora: Brit Milah - OU Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Chair_of_Elijah.jpg","datePublished":"2007-04-19T23:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-26T11:14:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/4c2f4ad1d72111dec1fdf83f0a909af9"},"description":"A recurring theme in the sources on milah is the idea that it is a repair. God told Avraham that through the mitzvah of milah, he would become complete","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/mm_brit\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Chair_of_Elijah.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Chair_of_Elijah.jpg","width":366,"height":336,"caption":"Chair of Eliyahu for bris"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/","name":"OU Life","description":"Everyday Jewish Living","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/4c2f4ad1d72111dec1fdf83f0a909af9","name":"Asher Meir","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0510faaa140f017ea10abbcd307dd7f96ad61b6976b05c887145d87bd1d3a4cd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0510faaa140f017ea10abbcd307dd7f96ad61b6976b05c887145d87bd1d3a4cd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Asher Meir"},"description":"Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir is one of the Jewish world's best-known lecturers and educators in the area of business ethics. Rabbi Dr. Meir is known by a wide audience from his \"Ethics@Work\" column in the Jerusalem Post, through the popular syndicated column \"The Jewish Ethicist,\" and through his lectures and books. His extensive background includes a Harvard education and obtaining a Ph.D. in economics from MIT. He has worked on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan Administration. His rabbinic ordination is from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. Rabbi Dr Meir's works combine a professional grasp of the detailed workings of the 21st century economy with a highly-developed sensitivity to the eternal ethical messages of Jewish law and tradition. For a number of years he served as a Senior Lecturer in economics and business ethics at the Jerusalem College of Technology. Rabbi Meir's first book, \"The Jewish Ethicist,\" was released in February 2005 and rapidly obtained remarkable reviewer approval. The American Library Association's Booklist applauded it as \"an important source of ethical insights for Jews and non-Jews alike,\" while the Jewish Press noted that the author \"combines up-to-the-minute knowledge of his field with thousands of years of Jewish tradition.\" Rabbi Meir's second book, \"Meaning in Mitzvot,\" distributed by Feldheim, provides insights into the deeper spiritual and ethical meanings of the daily practices of Jewish law, has been warmly received by readers. Dr. Meir is a regular member of the Ethics Committee of the Prime Minister's office and of the Israel Economic Association. He has spoken as an invited expert before the Knesset Law Committee. He is a frequent speaker at professional gatherings on business and economic ethics, as well as a lecturer for popular audiences.","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/rabbi_asher_meirou-org\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49574,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710\/revisions\/49574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}